Are Pay Increases on the Horizon?

Marcianne Kuethen

May 16, 2016

Are your workers outgrowing their nest? 49% of employees believe they need to leave their current employer to advance in their careers.

What Do CFOs Project?

As you know, wage growth has been sluggish for the past few years. However, a new survey shows that this may be changing due to the current candidate-driven labor market. 2,200 CFOs were asked whether they increased or decreased new hires’ salaries compared to what those workers earned at their previous employer. Here’s how the CFOs responded:

• 5% didn’t know
  5% decreased starting salaries
  36% offered the same starting salaries
  54% increased starting salaries

The National Association for Business Economics surveyed its members and discovered that nearly half of respondents said that their firms had increased pay in the last quarter of 2015, with even more planning pay increases in the first quarter of 2016. This is in spite of the fact that generally, the same number of respondents did not experience an increase in sales or employment. In all likelihood, now that we are into the second quarter and some types of candidates are even more sought after, firms will continue increasing salaries to attract hard-to-find candidates.

What Do Job Changers Want?

The importance of compensation’s role in recruiting was reinforced by a survey by the American Staffing Association. Not surprisingly, more than half of employed adults surveyed said that these were the most critical considerations when changing jobs:

• Wage potential
• Starting pay
• Benefits

What Do Employees Value?

If you’re concerned about retaining the good workers you already have, here’s what the same survey revealed that employed adults valued even more than pay and wage potential:

• Work-life balance
• Schedule flexibility

What Do Employers Predict?

This coincides with the concern nearly 400 employers expressed in another recent Randstad survey: When asked about the biggest trends impacting the future of work in the next 5 to 10 years, these were employers’ top responses:

• The need to create greater flexible working options to attract mobile talent (85%)
• The ability to analyze internal and external employee data to source and retain talent (78%)
• The challenge of keeping pace with evolving technology to enhance workforce productivity and performance (74%).

Randstad also found that 49% of employees believe they need to leave their current employer to advance in their careers, a fact that will encourage you to stay connected to current talent trends!

What Will You Do?

Are pay increases on the horizon? Possibly, yes–and eventually, certainly–but it also appears that an increase in your awareness as an employer may be a more important concern. Employees are expressing the human desire to improve their lives across the board–something to which every employer can also relate. Whether these workers’ desire will be achieved in their current job or at a new company is at least partially up to you. Since your organization’s money doesn’t grow on trees, helping them achieve their goals may require some creativity…are you up for the challenge?

If you have a workforce management issue you’d like to discuss or wish to request an employee, click here or call (714) 993-1900.